Biography & Autobiography Books indigo pussycat dress dresses

Cassie Lane had a quintessentially Australian, dysfunctional, single-parent upbringing. They loved each other, but in a stealing-Christmas-trees-together kind of way. For as long as she remembers she wanted to be somebody else. Miraculously, aged 16, her prayers were answered and she got boobs. Great boobs! And a body that would make Hugh Hefner blush. She went from awkward, gawky bogan to international model, jet-setting around the world and hanging out with A-listers in LA. But the dream turns into a nightmare; and when she resists the exploitation of the industry the is shunned. CassieÂs health suffers and her life spirals. She returns to Australia to find herself. She enrolls in university and starts dating someone who becomes a famous footballer. She attends the Brownlow and refuses a Collingwood alpha femaleÂs invitation to do cocaine and finds herself declared Âthe worst dressed at the BrownlowÂ by the Herald Sun (while the best dressed by Mx). Suddenly the media is full of scathing commentary commenting about the way she looks, everything from the size of her lips to her hair and dress. She is labelled a slut, a skank and a stripper. Her famous footballing partner has become abusive and she ends the relationship. His form suffers and staff from Collingwood call her and pressurises her into getting back with him. She yearns for an ordinary life; she finishes university and starts looking for entry-level jobs despite being in her late 20's. Cassie eventually comes full circle and realises that beauty is not about a symmetrical face or a 24-inch waist but it actually thrives in the imperfect and vulnerable. She learns to accept herself, and see how a woman should be.

A new roundup of personal essays - surprising, disarming, heartbreakingly funny - from the #1 bestselling writer Time named America's Favorite Humorist. David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters.He goes on vacation with his family.He gets a job selling drinks.He attends his brother's wedding.He mops his sister's floor.He gives directions to a lost traveller.He eats a hamburger.He has his blood sugar tested.It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his new book David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives - a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim finds one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today at the peak of his form.

David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters.He goes on vacation with his family.He gets a job selling drinks.He attends his brother’s wedding.He mops his sister’s floor.He gives directions to a lost traveller.He eats a hamburger.He has his blood sugar tested.It all sounds so normal, doesn’t it?In his new book David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives – a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the highest form of love. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim finds one of the wittiest and most original writers at work today at the peak of his form.

Cassie Lane had a quintessentially Australian, dysfunctional, single-parent upbringing. She and her mother loved each other, but in a stealing-Christmas-trees-together kind of way. For as long as she remembers she wanted to be somebody else. Miraculously, aged 16, her prayers were answered and she got boobs. Great boobs! And a body that would make Hugh Hefner blush. She went from awkward, gawky bogan to international model, jet-setting around the world and hanging out with A-listers in LA. But the dream turns into a nightmare; and when she resists the exploitation of the industry she is shunned. Cassie’s health suffers and her life spirals.She returns to Australia to find herself. She enrols in university and starts dating someone who becomes a famous footballer. She attends the Brownlow and refuses a Collingwood alpha female’s invitation to do cocaine and finds herself declared ‘the worst dressed at the Brownlow’ by the Herald Sun (while the best dressed by Mx). Suddenly the media is full of scathing commentary about the way she looks, everything from the size of her lips to her hair and dress. She is labelled a slut, a skank and a stripper.Her famous footballing partner has become abusive and she ends the relationship. His form suffers and staff from Collingwood call her and pressure her into getting back with him. She yearns for an ordinary life; she finishes university and starts looking for entry-level jobs despite being in her late 20s.Cassie eventually comes full circle and realises that beauty is not about a symmetrical face or a 24-inch waist but it actually thrives in the imperfect and vulnerable. She learns to accept herself, and see how a woman should be.

Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly...Each of these women had an influential take on the most classic wardrobe staple of all: the Little Black Dress. In this chic sewing book, patternmaker Dolin Bliss O'Shea pulls inspiration from famous LBDs throughout history, including Mary Quant's mod mini, a classic wrap dress worn by Liza Minelli, Princess Diana's smart A-line and more, and offers patterns for reinterpreted versions that are perfectly stylish. Including 10 full dress patterns with sewing variations to make 20 garments in all, a primer on sewing techniques, vintage photographs of style icons and full-colour shots of the finished pieces, this book has everything fashionistas need to bring timeless style right into their closets. About the Author Dolin Bliss O'Shea spent 15 years in the garment industry as a pattern maker and designer. She now develops patterns for her company, Lulu Bliss Patterns and works as a technical craft book editor.

The first comprehensive biography of one of the most admired public figures of our time, by the most widely read biographer of our era. Anyone who is a fan of Oprah Winfrey or who has followed her extraordinary life and career will be fascinated by this exhaustively researched book.

Alfred Kinsey was this century’s first scientifically reputable and most influential researcher into sex. His Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (The Kinsey Report), published in 1948, was an explosive bestseller, followed in 1953 by his even more radical statistics on female sexuality – both based on over 18,000 case histories. But Kinsey’s exploration went much further than that. Bisexual, he experimented with many of the behaviours he was hearing about; and his wife and close colleagues experimented as well. He pioneered observation and filming of sexual activity, the findings anticipating, and being confirmed by, Masters and Johnson thirty years later. The revolutionary nature of his views on female sexuality could not become current until the feminism of the 1970s and 80s. Kinsey remains a controversial figure. Gathorne-Hardy has interviewed in depth his remaining family, his close colleagues, friends and lovers. He reveals, in this subtle, often witty and penetrating study, whole new aspects of this complex, heroic, obsessive and ultimately sympathetic man.

Free Delivery Worldwide : Biography and History : Paperback : Palgrave USA : 9781403987266 : 1403987262 : 19 Jan 2012 : Biography is the oldest way of writing about historical events, and the most popular. Looking at the complex relationship between the discipline of history and the writing of lives, Biography and History provides an original and insightful introduction to a growing and increasingly important area of historical scholarship and research.

From X-Factor to One Direction to his incredible self-titled solo album, Harry Styles is an icon for our times. His debut solo single, Sign of the Times, shot to number one in both the UK and US charts and he’s about to embark on an already sold out global tour.This comprehensive biography details his early days discovering his love of music, right through to his first acting role in the action-packed, star-studded Dunkirk with Tom Hardy in summer 2017. Packed with facts, this is every fan’s guide to Harry’s transition from schoolboy to superstar.

Nearly a century after his murder, Rasputin remains as divisive a figure as ever. Was he really a horse thief and a hard-drinking ruffian in his youth? Was he a a devout Orthodox Christian, or was he in fact a just a fake holy man? Are the stories of his enormous sexual drive, debauchery, and drunken orgies true or simply a myth? How did he come to know the emperor and empress and to wield so much influence over them? What was the source of his healing power? Was Rasputin running the government in the final years of his life? And if so, was he acting on his own or on the orders of more powerful, hidden forces? Did Prince Yusupov and his fellow conspirators act alone or were they other parties involved in Rasputin’s murder-British secret agents or even an underground cell of Freemasons, as has been claimed? And to what extent did Rasputin’s murder doom the Romanov dynasty? Drawing on major new sources hitherto unexamined by western historians, Douglas Smith’s book is be the definitive biography of this extraordinary figure for a generation.

A critical history of the first six decades of the television era traces television’s evolution from an immobile piece of furniture with limited sponsored programming to a diverse, on-demand content provider.

Jesus emerged from nowhere to become, in his short life – perhaps as few as 32 years – a thinker, teacher and preacher whose words and deeds would change the world and become the foundation for the world’s largest religion. But the biography as outlined in the New Testament and apocryphal writings only tells us so much. “LIFE’s” editors go, in words and pictures, in search of Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son who would one day influence all. The great photographer Denis Waugh once made a thorough, colourful, and moving pictorial pilgrimage to the Holy Land exclusively for “LIFE”, and those images will anchor our quest. We will travel, as well, to the Vatican, to the missions of Africa, to the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco – to all that has risen in Jesus, name. In the book’s final section, we will look at Christianity today: Its still vastly influential place in our tumultuous world.

One of Rolling Stone’s 10 Best Music Books of 2015An exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished writer and musician who toured with PettyNo one other than Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, could author a book about Tom Petty that is as honest and evocative of Petty’s music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write.Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a Southern shit kicker, a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise. From meeting Elvis, to seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, to producing Del Shannon, backing Bob Dylan, putting together a band with George Harrison, Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, making records with Johnny Cash, and sending well more than a dozen of his own celebrated recordings high onto the charts, Tom Petty’s story has all the drama of a rock and roll epic. Now in his mid-sixties, still making records and still touring, Petty, known for his reclusive style, has shared with Warren Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage.This is a book for those who know and love the songs, from “American Girl” and “Refugee” to “Free Fallin’” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” and for those who want to see the classic rock and roll era embodied in one man’s remarkable story. Dark and mysterious, Petty manages to come back, again and again, showing us what the music can do and where it can take us.

The epic story of Jerusalem told through the lives of the men and women who created, ruled and inhabited it.Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem’s biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women – kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores – who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique chronicle of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.

This biography tells the true story behind the gaiety and frivolity of the six Mitford daughters – and the facts are as sensational as a novel. There is Nancy, whose bright social existence masked a doomed obsessional love, which soured her success; Pam, a countrywoman maried to one of the best brains in Europe; Diana, an iconic beauty, who was already married when, at 22, she fell in love with Oswald Moseley, leader of the British fascists; Unity, who, romantically in love with Hitler, became a member of his inner circle before shooting herself in the temple when World War II was declared; Jessica, the family rebel, who declared herself a Communist in the schoolroom; and the youngest sister, Debo, who became the Duchess of Devonshire. Their extraordinary lives are revealed by the author, who had exclusive access to the Mitford archives.

This biography studies the making of writer and artist’s wife Cynthia Nolan, born Violet Cynthia Reed. She was almost forty when she married Sidney Nolan and consigned her past to obscurity. It tracks this brave, elusive figure through historical sources, letters, her novels, the recollections of friends and family, and the photographs and portraits made of her.After a privileged but constrained childhood, she travelled to Europe. Inspired by what she’d seen, she returned to Australia and, with a small circle of artists and designers, created a brief but influential business in contemporary art and design. In 1934 she moved to Sydney, hoping to find work as an actress. Disenchanted, Cynthia travelled to America, then London, to train as a nurse. Nurse Reed was in France when war was declared. She returned to Melbourne, pregnant, and stayed at Heide. She made a life for herself and her daughter, Mosca Jinx, in a cottage in Sydney, where she completed her much overlooked novels.Cynthia met Sidney through her sister-in-law, Sunday, who was married to John Reed. The women were close, but in 1941 Cynthia and Sunday had a falling out. Sidney came knocking on Cynthia’s door in 1948. Once married, Sidney adopted Jinx, signalling his commitment to their family life. Cynthia had the requisite skills, experience and contacts to assist Sidney in his unprecedented success. From 1953, their home base was in Putney, London. Cynthia recorded their travels and preoccupations in four books, and also wrote a novel, A Bride for St Thomas, published in 1970. By this time she was frail, often in severe pain. In 1976, having confided in no-one, Cynthia died in a hotel room in London. In her letters and books we hear her distinctive and discriminating voice, despite the turmoil surrounding her at Heide. This book restores her rightful place in history, as an influential woman in her own right.

It is difficult to overestimate the excitement that accompanied the birth of the Spitfire. An aircraft imbued with balletic grace and extraordinary versatility, it was powered by a piston engine and a propeller, yet came tantalisingly close to breaking the sound barrier.

From the formation of Wham! to his untimely death, this is the ultimate biography of George Michael.George Michael is an enigma. He was one of the most open and vocal pop superstars on the planet, yet he was also fiercely protective of his privacy.From the formation of Wham! in 1981 he immediately found fame and fortune beyond his wildest dreams. His music formed the soundtrack to the 1980s and he achieved all of this despite growing up in a dysfunctional family where his father openly proclaimed that George had no talent. Wham! Split in 1986 but Michael went on to greater things as a solo artist. Along the way he was embroiled in several controversies, but in a refreshing change to other superstars, he has been happy to address his issues head-on in the media. In the last decade he returned to touring with the massively successful 25Live tour and the critically acclaimed Symphonica after a serious health scare and a stint in prison. In the months before his death he was working on new material and a TV documentary. It was only after his death in December 2016 that stories of the full extent of his generosity came to light, adding another layer to the complex story of an unusual superstar. Rob Jovanovic’s newly updated biography of George Michael tackles the issues and glory that formed the superstar and his place as a cultural icon.

It was no wonder I was glad to be down in Woolloomooloo. The Old Fitzroy reminded me of how Kings Cross used to be.Told in his vivid and entertaining style, Louis Nowra writes Woolloomooloo’s biography, drink in hand, from the vantage point of the Old Fitzroy Hotel, the cosy, eccentric and wonderful pub on Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo. It’s a world of sex, sin, sly grog, sailors, razor gangs, larrikins, workers, artisans, murderers, fishermen, activists, drinkers, fashion designers, tradies, artists and the downright dangerous. It’s also a story of courage, resilience, tolerance, compassion. And though the pub has a real theatre, it’s the cast of real-life characters that are the stars of this show.Woolloomooloo’s past wraps around its present. Louis – often accompanied by Coco the Chihuahua and other two-legged locals, often walks the streets, uncovering history – some official, some never revealed. He stumbles across pockets of beauty and charm, and the derelict and abandoned. Unforgettable – and unspellable – Woolloomooloo in this book is a place as fascinating as its name. Listen to Louis Nowra’s interview on Radio National’s Books + Arts

Elizabeth Taylor is known internationally as one of the most beautiful and talented women ever to grace the silver screen. She has won two Academy Awards and starred in over sixty films. She is just as well known for her tempestuous personal life, marrying eight times and suffering through innumerable health problems. A cultural icon, she has been written about before… But never like this. This moving book traces for the first time Elizabeth’s journey through the dark and often lonely world of a fame unparalleled in the 1960s and 1970s, a time during which alcohol and drugs played a major part in her life. It would be with her fifth (and sixth) husband Richard Burton (with whom she made 12 movies, including Cleopatra) that she would learn life lessons about love and loyalty that would inform the rest of her life and, finally, be the catalyst for her recovery from alcoholism in the 1980s. This book also details her philanthropic work as an AIDS activist in the 1990s as well as her stunning success as a business woman today (with a multi-million-dollar fragrance). Based on years of research, this is not just a star’s biography… it’s an unforgettable woman’s story.

‘If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.’ – Robert Capa. ‘Robert Capa: A Graphic Biography’ is a brilliant portrayal of the career of the great war photographer who, at the time of his death in 1954, had only one wish: to be an unemployed war photographer. ‘It is not always easy’ he said, ‘to stand aside and be unable to do anything except record the suffering.’ Born in 1913 to a Jewish family in Budapest, Endre Friedmann left home at 18 for Germany where he studied journalism and political science and worked in a photo agency darkroom. In 1933, Friedmann went to Paris where he shared a darkroom with Henri Cartier-Bresson and lived with Gerda Taro, also a photographer. Together they contrived the name and image ‘Robert Capa, famous American photographer’. Capa made several trips to document the Spanish Civil War, where he took the seminal image, ‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’ for which he was heralded as ‘the greatest war photographer in the world’. By the start of World War II, Capa was in New York freelancing for LIFE, Time, and other publications. He went abroad with the US army to record Allied involvement in WWII, including D-Day on Omaha beach.Disembarking from a landing boat, he took the only images of the invasion. He went on to cover the war in Leipzig, Nuremberg, Berlin, London and Paris. Even now, it is the D-Day images that marked him as the world’s greatest war photographer. ‘Robert Capa: A Graphic Biography’, written in the first person, follows his personal and professional life and through his eyes, the social upheaval and earth-shattering wars of the 20th century. It shows his intimate life and his relationships with the day’s larger-than-life personalities: Ingrid Bergman, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and many others. Sepia watercolours wash the book in the fog of war and recall Capa’s generation on the cusp of colour film. They show his professional work, his personal battles, his victories and struggles, and his legacy: the founding of the Magnum, a cooperative photo agency which gives photographers control of their work. In 1954, having sworn off war photography but in need of money, he left to cover his fifth war, in Indochina.Driven by his conviction that ‘if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,’ he was with a French patrol when he stepped on a landmine and was killed, camera in hand.